EYFS

At Rockliffe Manor Primary School, we believe that learning is most memorable for children when it is planned in a cross-curricular way, taking on board their interests and therefore, enabling children to make links throughout their learning. We always ensure our activities include challenges for all learners, opportunities for children to develop through play and real life experiences with lots of interaction from adults and peers. We have high expectations of both staff and pupils and always strive to achieve outstanding outcomes.

Nursery

This half term we will be reading Hey, Little Ant by Philip M.Hoose and Hannah Hoose.

It tells the story of a boy who finds an ant, and wishes to squish it! Throughout the story, the boy and the ant debate back and forth about whether the boy should squish the ant, and ultimately gives the reader the choice at the end. We shall use this core text to discuss the themes of respect and fairness for all, no matter the appearance, and begin to learn about the many minibeasts who share our gardens and outdoor spaces.

In our topic work we will link closely to the global goal of ‘Life on Land’, as we discuss protecting, restoring and promoting sustainability.

Maths: This half term, we will spend two weeks on Shape, Space and Measure, as we look at comparing items by length, height and capacity. We will be using investigations to make the learning real life for the children, and use our knowledge to help design mini composters in our second week of STEAM. The rest of the half term will have a focus on number, ensuring that the children’s 1:1 correspondence is secure.

Science This half term we will begin by embarking on ‘STEAM’ fortnight. In this time, we will focus on sustainability, and together with year 5, we will work to try to ensure the school’s food waste is reused and that we are working to ensure a sustainable future for our community. We will be researching into the benefits of composting, and working with the year 5’s to create our own composters out of bottles.

Wider Curriculum: During summer 1, we will be encouraging all children to begin to write their names through a range of activities. With this comes many fine motor skills activities which have the aim of strengthening the children’s fingers. If you would like more information on how this can be done at home, please speak to one of the nursery team for ideas

Parents and carers can support their children’s learning at home through daily reading. This will enable children to further develop their vocabulary and communication skills. We will be continuing our ‘Parents’ Reading Morning ‘every Thursday morning; you are very welcome to come into Nursery and spend some time at the start of the day reading with your child each week. 

If you would like to discuss more about how you can help your child at home, please see your child's class teacher.

Please click here to view the Curriculum Framework for Nursery.

 

Reception

To kick off STEM fortnight, Reception will be exploring the water cycle and generating questions that they would like to find out about water and the rain. They will also be designing and making a rain water harvesting wall in the outside area to see how much rain water we can collect.

For the rest of summer 1, they will be learning about how animals have rights just like humans and need to be respected using books such as ‘That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals’ to reinforce this. They will explore the jobs that different animals perform, including how some are bred for food. They will learn that farming can be ethical and unethical, explore and deepen their understanding of where our food comes from and how it gets from farm to fork.

Maths: In summer 1, we will be looking at capacity and positional language linked to STEM fortnight and the water cycle; exploring the concept of full, half full and empty in a variety of contexts. We will then recap halving by looking at halves of shapes and amounts through problem solving and then end with collecting, recording and analysing data in the form of tally charts and bar charts.

Phonics: This term we will be revising all phase 3 sounds and moving onto phase 4. We will also continue practicing tricky words and blending and segmenting both orally and written. Here is a website that you may find useful to support your child with their phonics at home- www.phonicsplay.co.uk

Understanding of the world/EAD: Linked to our theme of respecting animals and our planet, we have turned the role play area into a vet’s surgery, where the children can treat the injured animals and nurse them back to health! We will be exploring the different choices people make when it comes to eating food such as vegetarianism and exploring ethical and unethical ways of rearing animals for food consumption. We will be having lots of discussions about whether the way some animals are treated are fair or unfair and gaining a better understanding of where our food actually comes from.

Our author focus this half term will be Quentin Blake . The children will have the opportunity to read a selection of his books in our book corner.

Children will be doing PE on a Monday or Friday.

The children will take a book home every week with their reading journal, and they will continue with their guided reading sessions each week. Please do leave a comment in the journal when you read with your child each evening. 

Enjoying books with your child will help to develop their learning in phonics as well as communication and language skills, so please do try and read regularly with your child. We will be continuing our ‘Parents’ Reading Morning’ every Thursday, which is an opportunity to come in to Reception and read with your child.

Please click here to view the Curriculum Framework for Reception.